Guru Brajendra Pattanaik: Passing Chhau heritage baton to next gen

Mail News Service

Saraikela, March 1: AGEING is an unavoidable physical process but AGE is a mental status that either boosts or diminishes the zest for life and living. The traditional Saraikela Chhau dance form belongs to the former category where Gurus of this genre have passed the baton through generations to ensure international recognition. In fact, almost every household in Saraikela region has at least one Chhau dance artiste or lover of this form that holds the traditional banner aloft. There have been masters (Gurus), dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Saraikela Chhau Nritya Kala that has been a hallmark through the traditional times.

One such traditional Guru is Brajendra Kumar Pattanaik who is the link joining the past with the future to ensure continuity of a glowing Chhau dance form of Saraikela through posterity.

The 54 year old Chhau Guru, Brajendra Kumar Pattanaik was born in an unassuming Saraikela family, did his B Com from Ranchi University but never looked beyond the realms of Chhau Nritya that he had imbibed since his age of four years. As an eminent exponent of Saraikela Chhau, he went on to add national recognition from the Indian government’s Ministry of Culture as a Senior Scholar in 1984 and in the year 2000, the Senior Fellowship Award. His learning process included training from the iconic and Padma Shri awardee, late Guru, Kedar Nath Sahu. Guru Brajendra Pattanaik has conducted several lecture and demonstration workshops in Kolkata and Odisha and in foreign lands in France and Germany. His performances on various platforms in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Assam and Madhya Pradesh in India and foreign shores of Denmark, France, South Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Germany, Vienna, Austria and Japan have been awe inspiring and left audiences worldwide asking for more.

Saraikela, taking its name from the land of Sodhai Kala, meaning 16 art forms, is synonymous with Chhau Dance form that boasts of a lineage of Gurus with eight among them being recognized with Padma Shri Awards. There are many such Chhau artistes in Saraikela who have continued to dedicate their lives to nurture and propagate the pride of this district’s famed dance form. One among them is Guru Brajendra Kumar Pattanaik who is inculcating this dance form to students at the Saraikela Chhau Training Centre. Currently, 20 eager and dedicated students are undergoing free training under the watchful and unique guidance of Guru Pattanaik. “We are inculcating in the students the history and spirit of traditional Saraikela Chhau dance. The purpose of operating this free Training Centre is to prepare the new generation to carry forward this rich heritage to bigger and newer horizons,” averred Guru Brajendra Kumar Pattanaik.

The Chhau Guru has the reassuring support of senior Chhau instrumentalist, Sunil Kumar Dubey who is dedicated to the cause of Saraikela’s Chhau dance to shine through ages to come.